Hypertension diet that effectively lowers blood pressure & bull; hello healthy

If you have a history of high blood pressure or prehypertension, you need to change your diet to be healthier and avoid foods that cause hypertension. This needs to be done to control blood pressure in order to avoid complications of hypertension that worsen your health. There is a way to maintain a diet for people with hypertension, namely applying a hypertensive diet, or better known as the DASH diet. What is the DASH diet and how to apply it?

What is the purpose of the DASH diet for people with hypertension?

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension aka the DASH diet is a healthy diet that has been shown to help reduce and prevent high blood pressure without using hypertension drugs. The National Institutes of Health said, the DASH diet is done by reducing the intake of sodium (salt), fat, and cholesterol and increasing the intake of protein, fiber, calcium and potassium from the food you consume daily.

By adopting the DASH diet, you can lower your blood pressure by several points within two weeks. Over time, the drop in blood pressure became more significant. In fact, the Mayo Clinic says, the drop can reach 14 mmHg for your systolic blood pressure.

In addition to lowering blood pressure, adopting the DASH diet is also good for maintaining overall body health. The reason is, this healthy way of eating is also proven to prevent other life-threatening diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, osteoporosis, and diabetes.

As for those of you who want to lose weight, the DASH diet can also be an option. However, you need to choose foods with lower calories in order to achieve this goal. If the typical DASH diet includes about 2,000 calories a day, you will need to meet your daily calorie needs below that number.

How do you go about the DASH diet for people with hypertension?

The key to implementing the DASH diet is to increase the consumption of vegetables and fruits and avoid foods that cause hypertension. This needs to be done consistently and regularly in your daily life.

You also need to adopt other healthy lifestyles, such as exercise for hypertension, reduce stress, and not smoke, in order to lower blood pressure optimally. It is not impossible, doctors can stop prescribing hypertension drugs if this healthy diet and lifestyle have had positive results on your health.

However, how to live the proper DASH diet? Here's a guide for you:

1. Reduce salt in cooking

Most people with hypertension have primary or essential hypertension. This type of hypertension has no known exact cause. However, experts believe one of the causes is an unhealthy lifestyle, including consuming salt.

Salt causes hypertension when consumed in excess. High salt (sodium) intake can cause fluid retention or water retention in the body. This condition causes the volume of water in the blood vessels to increase so that the pressure in the blood vessels increases. Therefore, people with hypertension need to reduce salt intake, including when undergoing the DASH diet.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends consuming no more than 2,300 mg of salt or sodium, the equivalent of one teaspoon per day. For those who have high blood pressure, the use of salt needs to be lower, which is no more than 1,500 mg per day.

The easiest way to reduce salt intake on a hypertensive diet is making your own dishes and reducing salt in these dishes. When cooking, it's best to cut back on salt, including table salt, MSG, meat tenderizers, various kinds of soy sauce and sauces, pickles, and others that are high in sodium.

To replace it, you can add other ingredients, such as garlic, onion, ginger, hazelnut, turmeric, kencur, laos, bay leaves, lemongrass, lemon, vinegar, pepper, or black pepper. You can also add orange, lemon, lime, pineapple, or vinegar as a spice for meat dishes in the hypertensive diet menu.

If you want to sauté, you should use butter that does not contain sodium or salt (unsalted butter). However, you can also try other cooking methods, such as baking or boiling rather than frying which contains more oil.

These methods are known to be very effective in lowering blood pressure. Research in Journal of Human Hypertension 2002 shows, reducing salt intake from 10 grams to 6 grams per day in a hypertensive diet can reduce blood pressure. In the end, this diet can reduce 14% of deaths from stroke and 9% of deaths from coronary heart disease in people with hypertension.

2. Avoid canned or processed foods

In addition to reducing salt in cooking, you also need to avoid processed or packaged foods, including canned and instant foods, and fast food. This type of food contains high sodium so it is dangerous for your health.

You should also limit drinking soft drinks because these drinks also contain added salt. If you are looking to buy frozen food, choose one with about 600 mg of sodium or less.

Here are some processed and packaged foods that you need to avoid when doing the hypertension diet or the DASH diet. These foods can raise blood pressure and cause hypertension symptoms to appear in you, namely:

• Salted or canned peanuts.
• Processed or canned meat, chicken, or fish, such as sausages, sardines, corned beef.
• Preserved foods, such as shredded, salted fish, salted eggs, pindang fish, jerky, peanut butter, and others.
• Canned vegetables or fruits.
• Butter and cheese with high sodium, like cottage cheese.
• Finished seasonings, such as soy sauce, various sauces, shrimp paste, paste, tauco, and other seasonings.

3. Read food labels when purchasing packaged foods

When on a low salt or sodium diet, it is still possible to eat packaged foods. However, make sure your daily sodium / salt needs do not exceed the recommended ideal limits.

To be sure, you need to check or read the nutritional value information every time you buy packaged food. You will find out how much salt or sodium the packaged food product contains.

Choose foods that are low in sodium (140 mg or less per serving) or sodium-free (less than 5 mg per serving).

Usually in one package of packaged food there is more than one serving. To find out, you can see the number of servings per package. Then, you can divide the amount of sodium in one package by the number of servings per package.

After knowing how much sodium is contained in each one serving of these foods, you can judge whether these foods can be consumed by you and how much these foods can be consumed, according to the hypertension diet you are currently living.

Assess the sodium and salt content

As a consideration, here are other ways to read the salt content on the packaging label and assess whether you can consume these foods or not:

• Low: 0.3 g salt or less per 100 g of food. You can eat these foods.
• Medium: 0.3-1.5 g salt per 100 g of food. You should not eat these foods too often.
• High: 1.5 g salt or more per 100 g of food. Avoid foods with this much salt.

As for 1 gram of sodium is equal to 2.5 grams of salt. Here's how to read and assess the sodium content in packaged foods:

• Low: 0.1 g sodium or less per 100 g of food. You can eat these foods.
• Moderate: 0.1-0.6 g sodium per 100 g of food. You should limit your consumption of these foods, not too often.
• High: 0.6 g of sodium or more per 100 g of food. Avoid foods with this much sodium.

Then, what if it doesn't say how much salt or sodium is contained in a food product? Well, you can read the list of compositions. If salt is in the first place, chances are the product contains a lot of salt or sodium.

4. Consume the right amount of portions

The hypertension diet or the DASH diet emphasizes the importance of eating foods rich in fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. However, you should not overeat these foods. You need to consume it in the right number of servings or servings, not excessive and not less.

The following are the types of food that you can consume during the DASH diet along with the number of servings that you can apply in your daily menu. This portion size is based on the daily calorie limit on the DASH diet, which is 2,000 calories per day.

Whole grains or whole grain products

Whole grains or whole grain products need 6-8 servings. One serving of whole grains is equivalent to one slice of whole wheat bread, 1 ounce or 28 grams of dry cereal, or half a cup of cooked cereal, brown rice, or pasta.

Vegetables

Vegetables need to be consumed as much as 4-5 servings per day. One serving of vegetables is equivalent to one cup of raw leafy greens, half a cup of cooked vegetables, or 6 ounces (177 ml) of vegetable juice. Vegetables that are recommended, namely tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and other green vegetables.

Fruits

Fruit needs to be consumed as much as 4-5 servings per day. One serving of fruit is equivalent to 1 medium-sized fruit, a quarter cup of dried fruit, such as dates, half a cup of chopped fruit whether it's fresh, frozen, or canned fruit, or 6 ounces (177 ml) of fruit juice.

Low-fat or fat-free dairy products

Low-fat or fat-free dairy products need to be consumed in 2-3 servings per day. One serving of dairy is equivalent to one glass of milk, 1 cup of yogurt, or 1.5 ounces (42 grams) of cheese. Types of cheese that are low in sodium include cream cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella.

Meat, poultry and fish

Meat, poultry and fish should be consumed no more than two servings per day. One serving of this type of food is equivalent to one egg or 1 ounce (28 grams) of cooked meat.

Nuts and seeds

Nuts, seeds, and dry legumes need to be consumed in 4-5 servings per week. One serving of nuts and seeds is equivalent to one-third of a cup of nuts, two tablespoons of whole grains or bean paste, or half a cup of peas. Foods that are recommended for this type, such as almonds, sunflower seeds, kidney beans, peas, and others.

Fats and oils

Fats and oils need to be consumed as much as 2-3 servings per day. One serving of oil is equivalent to one teaspoon of butter, one tablespoon of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons isalad dressing, or a teaspoon of vegetable oil.

Sweet food

Sugary foods should be limited to less than 5 servings per week. One serving of sweet food is equivalent to one tablespoon of sugar, jelly, or jam, or one cup of lemonade.

5. Applying the DASH diet when eating at restaurants

If you have followed the guidelines for doing a low-salt hypertension diet or the DASH diet at home, what should you do if someone asks you to eat out of the house?

Relax, you can still go on a diet for high blood pressure while eating at restaurants, cafes, or ordering food from outside. Choose the recommended foods and avoid foods that need to be avoided for the DASH diet. Better yet, if you choose high blood-lowering foods that are clearly good for your health.

However, if this is difficult to find, choose the menu with the lowest salt content or ask the restaurant chef to reduce or cook your food without salt. For example, when you eat pizza or pasta, you can choose toppings vegetable or chicken. Reduce or if necessary avoid toppings high-salt content, such as sausage, cheese, pepperoni, or bacon.

When choosing rice for a low-salt hypertensive diet, avoid rice with additional spices, such as fried rice, uduk rice, or yellow rice. Choose white rice, or if available, choose brown rice or black rice, which of course will be even better for your hypertension diet.

When you order a salad with or salad dressing , make sure you don't pour the sauce thousand island to the salad. Several sauces used for salads, incl thousand island , contains high salt. Instead, enjoy the vegetables in your salad by dipping it into the sauce.

You also need to keep avoiding saturated fat and excess cholesterol when eating at restaurants. To avoid this, you can choose foods with a little oil or if necessary, choose foods that are steamed, baked, or boiled.

In addition, you also need to limit your food portions. Choose the portion of food that fits your diet. If necessary, share your food with your partner, friends, or family so as not to overdo it.

Recipe for daily hypertension diet or DASH diet recipes

To apply the hypertension diet or the DASH diet at home, you can try some of the recipes below:

1. Chicken salad

Source: Food Network

This recipe contains the nutrients and fiber contained in vegetables. Do not forget to add the nutritional content of the protein from chicken. Here's how to make it:

Materials needed:

• 1 tsp pepper and salt.
• 3 tsp fish sauce.
• 4 ounces of skinless and boneless chicken breast.
• 1 bowl mix lettuce, tomatoes, peas, cabbage, apple slices, cucumber and carrots.

How to make:

• First, coat the chicken breast with pepper and salt.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius.
• Make a salad dough with the cleaned and stirred vegetables together.
• Don't forget to also mix in the fish sauce to add flavor.
• After that, place the topping of the grilled chicken breast on top. Easy and healthy salads are ready to be enjoyed.

2. Chocolate smoothie with banana and avocado

If you are bored with straight fruit or juice, you can make other alternatives to meet your daily fruit needs. Here's the recipe:

Materials needed:

• 2 cups vanilla-flavored soy milk (or plain).
• ½ pieces of avocado flesh.
• 1 medium banana, peeled.
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder.
• 2 teaspoons sugar (can be substituted for stevia).

How to make:

Combine all of the above ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth and serve as soon as possible for a quick, healthy breakfast.

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